San Francisco VictoriansNot all that many people know about them, but the City of San Francisco provides a vast number of walking tours for free for anyone who is interested in showing up.  Don’t let the name “walking tour” scare you away if you really aren’t all that in to walking.  The tours provide usually cover only a handful of city blocks and there is lots of time to stop and rest and learn about the sights.

San Francisco is made up of numerous districts and fascinating neighborhoods and these walking tours give you an interesting perspective of the particular area you are visiting.  Even if you have visited San Francisco a hundred times before you will never look at even a well known area to you in the same way.  Once the history of the buildings, architecture or people has been shared with you the once well known area will have so much more meaning.

Walking tours provide you with knowledge, entertainment, and exercise and don’t take a bite out of your wallet.  No matter what the weather getting outside and getting some fresh air will give you a boost to your morale.

There are a number of walking tours available every day of the week that are lead by local volunteers trained in the history of the area.  They provide insight and fun stories that you may otherwise never learn about.  If you visit the website http://www.sfcityguides.org you will find all of the various tours that are scheduled along with the meeting place and time.  The meeting places are normally easy to find public places that can be reached by public transportation so you don’t go broke feeding meters or paying for parking in lots.

The tours cover the various neighborhoods of San Francisco that include in part Haight-Ashbury, Mission Dolores, Marina, the Castro, Nob Hill, and Chinatown.  On these tours you can visit the Japanese Tea Garden, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Ferry Building, and the Palace Hotel just to name a few.

On our last visit to San Francisco we took the 1906: Phoenix Rising tour.  This tour met at Franklin at Fulton in front of the iron gates of the Veterans Opera building.  Our tour guide described to us how the Opera building came into being.  He explained about how the land was in the early days when San Francisco was first being settled and how a man by the name of Hayes bought a large portion of the uninhabited land around the city hall and then sold it parcel by parcel therefore providing his living. We learn about the events that occurred on April 18, 1906, a massive earthquake happened around 5 a.m. and toppled a large percentage of chimneys and buildings and destroyed city water pipes.  Fires were started by the gas street lights and chimneys that were no longer in tact and there was no water to put the fires out.  The fires were coming from the east and destroying pretty much everything in site and then the unthinkable happened.  Another fire started around 10 a.m. in a Victorian home on the west side of the City Hall building by a woman who was cooking breakfast.  They call this fire the “Ham and Egg” fire and it ended up destroyed a great number of Victorian homes in that area.

Even though the huge City Hall was destroyed by the earthquake and fires it was rebuilt within a couple of years to its magnificent stature that stands today.  And across the sandy square you will find a statue that actually survived both the earthquake and fire.

This was a very interesting and worthwhile tour that lasted close to 2 hours.  Next time you visit San Francisco take a look at the many tours that are available and choose one that fits your interests.  You will gain a new perspective of this great city.

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